The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus: Vol. I (Routledge Revivals)

The Rosetta Stone

E. A. Wallis Budge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317654902
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

This is the first of three volumes exploring some of the most remarkable insights into Ancient Egypt to have come to light in modern times. The first two volumes deal with the Rosetta Stone, an outstanding archaeological discovery that has supplied the basis for Egyptian decipherment; the final volume explores the "Stele of Canopus", discovered in 1866.

The significance of the Rosetta Stone lies in the three different languages that are inscribed onto it: Koine Greek, Demotic Egyptian, and, crucially, Hieroglyphic. This has facilitated a vast increase in our understanding of the sacred language of Ancient Egypt, as well as enhancing our understanding of the nature of kingship at a time of immense cultural transformation.

First published in 1904, this reissue provides an accessible general introduction to this fascinating subject, useful for the amateur enthusiast as well as undergraduate students.

THE

ROSETTA STONE

CHAPTER I.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROSETTA STONE.

THE famous stone in the British Museum,¹ which is now universally known as the “Rosetta Stone,” was discovered at a spot which lies a few miles to the north of the comparatively modern Arab, or Egyptian, town of Rashîd,

, which Europeans generally call “Rosetta.” It is said to have been found by a French Officer of Engineers, whose name is given sometimes as Boussard and sometimes as Bouchard,² in August, 1799, whilst he was engaged in digging out the foundations of a fort which he was ordered to rebuild, and which, when finished, was well known among those who took part in the Egyptian wars of the period as “Fort St. Julien.”³ This fort is duly marked in the map of Egypt which was made by the command of Napoleon the Great, and we see from it that it stood on the left or west bank of the arm of the Nile which makes its way to the sea viâ Rosetta, and that it lies opposite Gezîrat Al-Khaḍra, and that it is about equidistant from Burg Ṣa‘îr in the north and Gezîrat Wârshî on the south.

The spot where the Stone was found marks the site of the principal temple of an ancient Egyptian riverside town, which must have been of considerable importance even in the Ptolemaic period, and as we know that the arm of the Nile which flows by Rosetta was that to which the Greek geographers gave the name “Bolbitinic,” and that the city of Bolbitine itself was in the immediate neighbourhood, there is every reason for assuming the correctness of the views of Champollion,¹ who identified Rosetta with Bolbitine, and thought that the Stone had once stood in the temple of that town. Of the history and downfall of Bolbitine nothing is known, and we can only speculate as to the causes which led to the disappearance of a populous and apparently well-to-do city. That it enjoyed considerable advantages from its position is evident from the fact that the Arabs or Egyptians founded the town of Rosetta as close to the south of the ancient city as possible; according to Stephen of Byzantium it was famous as the manufactory of chariots, and the Arab geographer Yâḳût (ii. p. 781) refers to a certain kind of fish which was to be found in abundance there. Fruit trees must always have been plentiful, for the district was well suited for orchards and large gardens. The antiquity of the town of Rosetta is not great, for no mention of it occurs in Coptic documents,¹ and the Coptic form of the name, Rashît, is probably a mere transcription of the Arabic name Rashîd. In the days when Rosetta and Damietta were the two principal ports of Egypt, the wealth of Rosetta was considerable, but as soon as Muḥammad ‘Ali succeeded in putting Alexandria once again in communication with the Nile and the rest of Egypt by means of the Maḥmûdîyeh Canal, the prosperity of the little town was arrested, and its importance declined, just as in times of old the city of Bolbitine suffered severely through the founding of Alexandria.

Returning, however, to the Stone, we may note that, according to one account, M. Bouchard found it lying loose in the ground, and that its existence was only made known by the pick striking it accidentally; and that, according to another, it was found built into a wall which was ordered to be demolished to make way for the building of the new fort. According to the late Dr. Birch, though the reason for his statement is not apparent, the Stone “appears to have been placed in a temple dedicated to Tum or Tomos, the setting Sun, originally erected in the reign of Nectanebo.”² Be this, however, as it may, the discovery of the Stone was reported in due course to the body of savants whom Napoleon had taken with him, but it was impossible for any of their number to examine it, because they were all employed in Upper Egypt, and in the neighbourhood of Thebes and Aswân. It is possible also, as Dr. Young says,¹ that the members of the great French scientific expedition entertained such exaggerated views about the antiquity of Egyptian works of art that they were led to “neglect the lights that might have been derived from a comparison of Greek and Roman inscriptions with the hieroglyphics in their neighbourhood; and to suppose that whatever bore the date of less than thirty or forty centuries must necessarily be an interpolation, unconnected with the original architecture and decorations of the edifice to which it belonged.” In due course the members of the French expedition returned from the south to Cairo and Alexandria, where Napoleon’s agents had succeeded in gathering together a considerable number of Egyptian antiquities, and arrangements had been made for transporting them to Paris. Meanwhile the English had gained many victories over Napoleon’s forces, and after the capitulation of Alexandria the antiquities were surrendered, by Article XVI. of the Treaty of Capitulation, to General Hutchinson, who despatched them to England at the end of the year 1801. The Stone, which was even at that time called the “Rosetta Stone,” was among them, and it arrived in England in February, 1802; the importance of the object was already well known, for it was despatched from Alexandria under the care of Colonel Turner, F.A.S., who sailed in H.M.S. L’Égyptienne. An interesting note from the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxxii., p. 726, 1802, on the subject of the antiquities may be here transcribed:—“The various Egyptian antiquities collected by the French army, and since become the property of the conquerors, have lately been conveyed to the British Museum, and may be seen in the outer court of that building. Many of them were so extremely massive, that it was found necessary to make wooden frames for them. They consist of an immense bath of granite, about 10 feet long, and 5 feet deep and over, covered within and without with hieroglyphicks; another bath of smaller dimensions equally adorned; a granite coffin with the shape of the head, and covered over with hieroglyphicks; a hand clenched, the statue belonging to which must have been 150 feet high; two statues in white marble, in Roman habits, one of them without a head, the features of the other much defaced; the head of a ram, in reddish stone, measuring about 4 feet from the nose to the crown of the head, and every way proportionate, the right horn broken off; several human figures sitting, with the heads of beasts, and in the left hand the crux ansata, or cross, with a handle and ring; similar heads without bodies; two marble obelisks, the four sides charged with hieroglyphicks; a large cylindrical pillar of granite, measuring 12 feet in length and 3

in diameter. The smallest bath weighs about 11 tons, and there were eleven horses to draw it to the Museum; the largest only 9 tons, the stone not being so massive, required only nine horses. The whole weight of the collection is calculated at about 50 tons.” We may note in passing that the “baths” referred to above are (1) the stone sarcophagus of NECTANEBUS I.,¹ inscribed with texts and scenes which describe the passage of the sun through the hours of the day and night; and (2) the massive granite sarcophagus of ḤĀPIMEN.² One of the sarcophagi had actually been used as a bath in Egypt, and holes were cut in the sides, at the level of the bottom, to let the water run out; it was these, no doubt, which led the writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine to describe the sarcophagi as “baths.” How he arrived at the conclusion that the statue to which the “hand clenched” belonged was 150 feet high is not so easily explained. The “two marble obelisks” are those which were set up before the door of his temple by NEKHT-ḤERU-ḤEB, i.e. Nectanebus I.,³ the first king of the last native dynasty of Egypt, who reigned about B.C. 378.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.

I.—LETTER FROM MAJOR-GENERAL H. TURNER TO NICHOLAS CARLISLE, ESQ., SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, LONDON.

(Read 8th June, 1810, and printed in ARCHAEOLOGIA, vol. xvi., p. 212 ff., London, 1812.)

“ARGYLE STREET,

“May 30, 1810.

SIR,

The Rosetta Stone having excited much attention in the learned world, and in this Society in particular, I request to offer them, through you, some account of the manner it came into the possession of the British army, and by what means it was brought to this country, presuming it may not be unacceptable to them.

By the sixteenth article of the capitulation of Alexandria, the siege of which city terminated the labours of the British army in Egypt, all the curiosities, natural and artificial, collected by the French Institute and others, were to be delivered up to the captors. This was refused on the part of the French General to be fulfilled, by saying they were all private property. Many letters passed; at length, on consideration that the care in preserving the insects and animals had made the property in some degree private, it was relinquished by Lord Hutchinson; but the artificial, which consisted of antiquities and Arabian manuscripts, among the former of which was the Rosetta Stone, was insisted upon by the noble General with his usual zeal for science. Upon which I had several conferences with the French General Menou, who at length gave way, saying that the Rosetta Stone was his private property; but as he was forced, he must comply as well as the other proprietors. I accordingly received from the under secretary of the Institute, Le Pere, the secretary Fourier being ill, a paper, containing a list of the antiquities, with the names of the claimants of each piece of Sculpture: the stone is there described as black granite, with three inscriptions, belonging to General Menou. From the French sçavans I learnt, that the Rosetta Stone was found among the ruins of Fort St. Julien, when repaired by the French, and put in a state of defence: it stands near the mouth of the Nile, on the Rosetta branch, where are, in all probability, the pieces broken off. I was also informed, that there was a stone similar at Menouf, obliterated, or nearly so, by the earthen jugs being placed on it, as it stood near the water; and that there was a fragment of one, used and placed in the walls of the French fortifications of Alexandria. The stone was carefully brought to General Menou’s house in Alexandria covered with soft cotton cloth, and a double matting, where I first saw it. The General had selected this precious relic of antiquity for himself. When it was understood by the French army that we were to possess the antiquities, the covering of the stone was torn off, and it was thrown upon its face, and the excellent wooden cases of the rest were broken off; for they had taken infinite pains, in the first instance, to secure and preserve from any injury all the antiquities. I made several remonstrances, but the chief difficulty I had was on account of this stone, and the great sarcophagus, which at one time was positively refused to be given up by the Capitan Pasha, who had obtained it by having possession of the ship it had been put on board of by the French. I procured, however, a centry on the beach from Mon. Le Roy, prefect maritime, who, as well as the General, behaved with great civility; the reverse I experienced from some others. When I mentioned the manner the stone had been treated to Lord Hutchinson, he gave me a detachment of artillerymen, and an artillery-engine, called, from its powers, a devil cart, with which that evening I went to General Menon’s house, and carried off the stone, without any injury, but with some difficulty, from the narrow streets, to my house, amid the sarcasms of numbers of French officers and men; being ably assisted by an intelligent serjeant of artillery, who commanded the party, all of whom enjoyed great satisfaction in their employment: they were the first British soldiers who entered Alexandria. During the time the stone remained at my house some gentlemen attached to the corps of sçavans requested to have a cast, which I readily granted, provided the stone should receive no injury; which cast they took to Paris, leaving the stone well cleared from the printing ink which it had been covered with to take off several copies to send to France, when it was first discovered. Having seen the other remains of ancient Egyptian sculpture sent on board the Admiral by Sir Richard Bickerton’s ship, the Madras, who kindly gave every possible assistance, I embarked with the Rosetta Stone, determining to share its fate, on board the Egyptienne frigate, taken in the harbour of Alexandria, and arrived at Portsmouth in February, 1802. When the ship came round to Deptford, it was put in a boat and landed at the Custom House; and Lord Buckinghamshire, the then Secretary of State, acceded to my request, and permitted it to remain some time at the apartments of the Society of Antiquaries, previous to its deposit in the British Museum, where I trust it will long remain, a most valuable relic of antiquity, the feeble but only yet discovered link of the Egyptian to the known languages, a proud trophy of the arms of Britain (I could almost say spolia opima), not plundered from defenceless inhabitants, but honourably acquired by the fortune of war.

“I ha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROSETTA STONE
• CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTION OF THE ROSETTA STONE AND ITS CONTENTS
• CHAPTER III. THE ROSETTA STONE AND ITS EARLIEST DECIPHERERS
• CHAPTER IV. THE LABOURS OF THOMAS YOUNG
• CHAPTER V. THE LABOURS OF J. F. CHAMPOLLION
• CHAPTER VI. THE OBELISK AT PHILAE
• CHAPTER VII. THE ROSETTA STONE—HIEROGLYPHIC TEXT
• CHAPTER VIII. THE ROSETTA DECREE—ENGLISH TRANSLATION